Street Side Marketing Tips for Your Ice Cream Shop

Article written by Best Pet Health

If you own an ice cream shop, there’s a good chance you’re situated on a highly trafficked street or inside of a mall where you can get a lot of visibility. Take advantage of those positions and use your employees to help sell ice cream. You can make it fun with a bit of creative thinking, some ice cream shop supplies and some out going personalities. Here are some tips to help you start harnessing the true power of all that foot traffic.

Samples

Ice cream melts in the sun, so it’s not a good idea to bring out a tray of ice cream cups. Instead, bring out a few at a time, with extra sampling cups for when the employee runs out of pre-made samples. This keeps the ice cream fresh and cool, gives the impression your treats are in demand, and gets people to come into your store for samples they missed out on.

You can score some bonus points by taking time to style the ice cream a bit inside the cup, perhaps adding some sprinkles or pouring soft serve with the perfect tip to look like mini ice cream cones.

Presentation

If you’re in a mall, your ice cream should be visible well before the person ever comes to your counter. You might have a plastic model on the counter of your top selling flavor, or just keep an open case with the ice cream tilted upwards. Presentation matters.

Have tasting spoons at the ready, and clearly marked (perhaps, a label that says “ask for a sample”). Have trash cans at the front, and see if you can put out a table or two for guests to sit and eat. Those tables won’t remain empty for long, and people will take notice when couples or families are enjoying your ice cream.

Other Tips

Print full-color fliers that are creative and offer a decent deal. Don’t oversell yourself and promote something you can’t fulfill, but give new customers a reason to try your ice cream. Especially if long-term branding is your aim. Ice cream shops struggle sometimes to retain customers, but tend to have high sales from new customers. If retention is an issue, you might consider a new menu item that becomes your “signature”, something you make that’s better than your competition.

You can also consider branded bags or cups, which will end up in trash cans but people will see them. That awareness drives business, even when the person who sees the cup is miles away from your location. Once you’ve begun utilizing your foot traffic, you can explore options to market yourself online.